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MERSHON'S 

MODERN RURAL 

SCHOOL 



ESPECIALLY ADAPTED TO RURAL 
AND VILLAGE SCHOOLS 



FRED MERSHON 

COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 
SALLISAW. OKLAHOMA 

1919 



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Democrat Print, Sallisaw 



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I MERSHON'S I 

I MODERN RURAL | 

I SCHOOL I 



ESPECIALLY ADAPTED TO RURAL 
AND VILLAGE SCHOOLS 



This Plan of School is Dedicated 

to the Boys and Girls of the 

U. S. A. 



COPYRIGHTED 1919 BY 

FRED MERSHON 

COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 
SALLISAW. OKLAHOMA 



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COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 
SALLISAW, OKLAHOMA 



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MAY -2 1919 



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MODERN RURAL SCHOOLS 



WHY BOYS LEAVE THE FARM 



"Why did you leave the farm my lad? 
Why did you bolt and quit your dad? 
Why did you beat it off to town, 
And turn your poor old father down? 
Thinkers of platform, pulpit, press, 
Are wallowing in deep distress; 
They seek to know the hidden cause, 
Why farmer boys desert their pa's. 
Some say the silly little chumps, 
Mistake the suit cards for the trumps. 
In wagering fi-esh and germless air 
Against the smoky thoroughfare. 
We've all agreed the farm's the place. 
So free the mind and state your case!" 

"Well stranger since you've been so frank, 

I'll roll aside the hazy bank. 

The misty cloud of theories. 

And show you where the trouble is. 

I left my dad, his farm, his plow. 

Because my calf became his cow, 

I left my dad — 'twas wrong of course, 

Because my colt became his horse. 

I left my dad to sow and reap, 

Because my lamb became his sheep. 

I dropped my hoe and stuck my fork. 

Because my pig became his pork. 

The garden truck that I made grow — 

'Twas his to sell and mine to hoe. 

It is not the smoke in the atmosphere. 

Nor the taste of life that brought me here. 

Please tell the platform, the pulpit, press. 

No fear of toil or love of dress. 

Is driving off the farmer lads. 

But just the method of their dads!" 

—J. EDWARD TUFT. 



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MODERN RURAL SCHOOLS 



PREFACE 

The purpose of this little booklet is to give the rural communities 
a school in line with other advanced thought under the new era now 
dawning upon the world. The Great World War has taught us many 
things we never thought of before, and has enabled us to do many 
things we never believed could be done. In fact, we are entering 
the most progressive era the world has ever known. Then, why not 
have our school system keep pace with other modern progress and give 
to our rural boys and girls a chance to win in life's battle by taking 
the school to them in their own communities, instead of forcing them 
to leave home to find the school elsewhere at an expense usually 
prohibitive, which has always eliminated a large percentage of our 
rural boys and girls from a chance to even get a practical education 
I trust you will study this plan carefully and then let me know your 
honest opinion as to its practicability and adaptibility to the rural 
commimity. 

Respectfully yours, 

FRED MERSHON. 
County Superintendent of Schools. 



MODERN RURAL SCHOOLS 



Six of these schools are being established in Sequoyah County and 
their success is practically assured on account of the co-operation, the 
push and energy being put into them by the people living in the 
districts in which these schools are being constructed. A good many 
educators have already investigated this plan of school and they are 
prophesying that it will be the new education for the rural schools 
throughout the entire country and that it will take its place with other 
advanced thought in modern civilization brought about through war 
activities. 

00 

THE SCHOOL SITE, BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT 



In every school of this kind, we have purchased a ten acre block 
of land as near the center of the school district as we could, to locate 
on a public thoroughfare. We divided this block of land into two 
parts of six acres and four acres each. The six acre piece is being 
improved for an experimental school farm. The four acre piece is 
being laid out into public walks, grass plots, athletic ground and 
flower beds. Shade trees will be grown wherever needed. In fact 
the school campus is being arranged systematically in .order to 
harmonize the entire surroundings. The campus is being made large 
so as to provide a community park for the citizenship of the school 
district. We are building from two to four room fire-proof brick 
buildings on nearly every campus. We are erecting these buildings 
so as to provide a nice commodious auditorium for community meet- 
ings. Each auditorium is being provided with a small but modern 
stage, for the purpose of entertainment. A five or six room modern 
teacherage is being erected on each campus so as to provide a home 
for the superintendent of the school. This home is to be made an 
example for the average farm home and is to be kept in a systematic 
way so as to impress the child in school with a systematic home. The 
campus is being kept by the club boys and girls of the school and is 
being made the beauty spot of the entire community. Properly located 
on the farm is being erected a small but modern barn, poultry house 
and poultry yard. These, as you can readily see, will have their 
educational value also. The farm is being used for teaching scientific 
farming at first hand. Book agriculture only gives the child the 
shadow. Experimental agriculture gives the substance, and implants 
into the mind of the child, not the theory alone but the concrete facts 
as well, and which will, from personal touch, become a part of the boy 
and girl and make the thrifty citizen. Among other things, it will 
teach the child the difference between extensive and intensive farm- 
ing, a thing so much needed to be thoroughly taught in this western 
country. This kind of school will give the child a Junior Agricultural 
College at his very door. Through this school we are giving to the 
country boy and girl efficient instructors, men and women, especially 
fitted for a school of this kind. Instead of having to go to some town 
to complete the foundation upon which a higher education is built, the 
work is being done at home and in such way as to provide a love for 
rural life. We are employing our superintendents for these schools 
for tv.-elve months, with the understanding that if they make good, 
we will give each of them a three-year contract. They are required to 



MODERN RURAL SCHOOLS 



take the proper interest in all teachers' meetings, both state and county, 
and otherwise keep themselves thoroughly equipped for their educa- 
tional work. We are placing on each school farm at least two regis- 
tered gilts, three dozen pure bred chickens, a registered milk cow and 
from two to five stands of bees. In the course of a few years from the 
beginning of these schools, we will have placed on every farm in these 
districts a start of registered hogs and pure bred chickens. This will 
be done through our club boys and girls without cost to parent or child, 
letting merit be the key to the plan. We will in due time get into the 
farm journals with fine hogs and poultry for sale, which will in a fi- 
nancial way, more than maintain the agricultural features of the school. 
We will grow about one-half acre of orchard on each school farm in 
order to properly teach Horticulture to the pupils and have fruit for 
canning purposes. It takes the orchard to make the ideal farm home. 
We are using the milk cow for teaching the care and keeping of the 
home dairy. The club work is in the hands of the superintendent of 
the school who is an expert in scientific agriculture, which will insure 
its absolute success. He will see that every phase of the club work is 
carried cut and every report is properly made, which will definitely) 
solve the difficulties of getting results from this line of our educational 
work. The boys and girls of this school will apply the principles taught 
them by their teachers in the cultivation of the school farm crops to the 
cultivaticn cf their club plats on their home farms. Through this 
school will go into the homes of the club boys and girls pure selected 
farm seeds and the principles of seed selection and better farming, 
which will aid materially in bringing greater prosperity to every 
farmer in reach of this kind of education. In fact, this school will be 
the joy and pride of an educated citizenship. We are co-operating with 
the Extension Division of the Agricultural Department, Washington, 
D. C. and the A. & M. College of this State, and will eventually build 
our equipment and efficiency to the requirement of the Federal Gov- 
ernment aid for Vocational Training. 

00 

WAR MADE THE SCHOOL THE SOCIAL CENTER OF THE 
WHOLE COMMUNITY 



(Southwest American Editorial Dec. 24th, 1918) 

Ever since the middle ages great educators have tried to get the 
school out of its monastic seclusion. Thoughtful writers like John 
Dewey and William Wirt have told us that the school should have a 
in every field of human life. 

War mobilized the schools. It made them a part of the treasury 
department to sell Thrift Stamps. They joined the medical service! 
through the Junior Red Cross. They linked every war activity to the 
family. 

Domestic science departments taught community canning, preach- 
ed and practiced food conservation and made clothes for Belgian and 
French orphans. Vocational classes were fii^st aid in training for 
service in all the manifold trades of a mechanical war. 

College staffs mobilized minds and men in a multitude of fields. 
Laboratories fought poison gas, liquid fire and submarines to such 
effect that the horrors of Hun science were checkmated everywhere. 



MODERN RURAL SCHOOLS 



Scholastic psychology was drafted from its exclusive laboratories 
and its unintelligible vocabulary and set to the task of choosing non- 
commissioned officers and aviators. It did the work so well and 
developed such splendid machinery and methods for selecting men that 
the world has gained a glimpse of wholly new possibilit'es in finding^ 
pegs to fit its many-sided industrial, political and social hol?s. 

War taught us that education is not an affair of youth alone. In 
teaching millions of adults we learned new and wonderful short cuts 
to knowledge that will hasten the speed of progress for many peaceful 
generations. 

The school plant was used to tell the people all the things we all 
needed to know to fight effectively for our free institutions. When 
the school was mobilized along with the farms, the factory,- the family 
and every other social institution, it learned to march and serve as 
fellow soldiers with all of these. 

Like all of these its military experience has changed it forever. 

Like all of these soldier pals it must now mobilize for the work of 
improving the society it helped to save. 

The school will keep on with Thrift Stamps and health work. It 
will, as the social center of the whole community, continue to offer 
education to wider and wider classes. It will make use of the new 
methods of "intensive training" developed in officers' training- 
camps and wherever a nation's need drove to speed in 
education fdr war. Its technical departments will continue to draw 
closer to home and farm and factory until it is a vital indistinguishable 
part of each. 

It will apply in peaceful selections of vocations for its students, 
the lessons learned in picking aviators and officers. Its laboratories 
will war on disease and incompetence and pov^^rty as they warred on 
Prussianism. 

Schools, like men, learn as well as fight in war. 



PARAGRAPHS OF INTEREST 



I fully endorse the Consolidated and Union Graded School Plan. 
They are both a long step in the right direction and add materially to 
the efficiency of rural school education. Add the principles of my 
plan to them and you will still increase their efficiency. The topog- 
raphy and financial status of a county has all to do with consolidation 
My plan can be used successfully in any school district, whether con- 
solidated or not, which has as much as $100,000 assessed valuation. 

I recomm.end the marketing system in all Consclidated Schools 
that adopt the Modern School Plan. 

We have two Modern Schools in operation in Ssquoyah county now 
and have four more in course of construction. We are optimistic as 
to their success. 

Every progressive move since time began, was branded as a dream 
when it first came to light. It had to ride to success over opposition. 

The club boys and girls of these schools are doing the work on 
the school farm. They are working under the supervision of the super- 
intendent of the school and are being paid by the hour for all work 
done by them. They are being taught the scientific principles of farm- 



MODERN RURAL SCHOOLS 



ing while doing the work, which will add materially to their interest 
in home work. 

We will install a Home Cannery in each of these schools for the 
purpose of tak"n,c-- care of the fruit and vegetables grown on the farm. 
The canning club will take care of this part of the work and will there- 
by he taur?t the scientific principles of di'ying, canning and preserv- 
ing fruits and vegetables. 

ike homes of the children of thes'e schools will not be robbed of 
time needed by them. This phase of the matter can easily be handled 
by the superintendent and patrons of the school. Co-operation of the 
right kind will solve the problem. 

A complete set of records are being kept by the superintendent 
of each of these schools, showing every item of expense and income of 
the school farm including all live stock and poultry. The principles 
of keeping these records are being taught the pupils of each school. 

Every dollar produced on the school farm through crops or other- 
wise, will be placed to the credit of the school for the purpose of im- 
proving and maintaining the agricultural featui"es of the school. 

Every superintendent of each of these schools is being paid a good 
salary and is being furnished a nice modern home to live in while in 
charge of the school. They are not allowed any part or parcel of the 
financial income of the school. 

Beware of the would-be superintendent who tries to make you 
believe that you must contract your school on the "fifty-fifty' plan 
or some other partnership plan in order to make it a success. He ie 
not looking after the best interests of your school, he is looking after 
his bank account. Any honest man will be satisfied with an honest sal- 
ary and will do honest, efficient work for the salary. 

You will find a man now and then who will object to his boy doing 
work on the school farm. If you will look this man up, you will find 
that his boy doesn't work on anybody's farm. He is raising him to be 
an idler and a scab on society. 

Just any old school is a failure without the co-operation of its 
patrons. This plan of school will work beautifully if the patrons of the 
district want it to. 

Don't you think it is tim.e to quit making the rural school the 
dumping ground for inferior teachers? The present war has taught 
us that our school system is not as efficient as it ought to be. Let's 
create a system on the basis of what the world demands today, prac- 
tical efficiency. 

Each superintendent will be required to hold regular meetings of 
his club boys and girls during the school vacation in order to keep up 
the prcper interest in 11 e agricultural features of the school. 

The club boys and girls ar3 v/orking jointly with the superintend- 
ent and teachers of each of these schools in making the campus a real 
community park. 

A superintendent who will not take pride in the keeping of the live 
stock, poultry and baes on the school farm is not a safe man for the job. 

The man who will kick the most against taxes to maintain a school 
of this kind is the fellovv- who dcrsn't pay any taxes. He usually 
has from three to nine children of school age. 

A real good school is deep at any price. A sorry one is an 



MODERN RURAL SCHOOLS 



injury to the district. Which will you have? 

In time of war our schools can do any kind of work, and do it 
successfully. Why not in time of peace ? 

A school district that is financially able to install a school of this 
kind, is able to stock it with live stock and poultry.. 

Don't do any partnership business. Pay the superintendent and 
all other teachers a straight salary and stop at that. If the shcool 
produces a profit, it belongs to the school. 

Oklahoma is a farming state, filled up with farmer boys and 
girls. Then why not give them a farmer school ? 

If the buildings in your school district is adequate for school 
purposes, you can convert your school into a Modern School by enlarg- 
ing and improving the campus, putting in a six acre school farm, erect- 
ing a modern teacherage, a small but modei'n barn, a modern poultry 
house and yard, purchasing the required number of live stock and 
poultry, and complying with all other requirements for a school of this 
kind. 

An electric light plant and water works can be installed in a school 
of this kind at a comparatively small cost, which will add. materially to 
the convenience and sanitation of the school. 

If you cannot add all the conveniences in building a school of this 
kind, begin with a part of them and add the others as you can. 

I don't mean to leave the impression that evei'y school established 
on this plan will be a high school, but I do mean to say, however, that 
many of them will soon develop into accredited high schools. An 
efficient common school is far better than a sorry one. 

How would you enjoy taking your family and dinner basket some 
bright spring morning and spend a day with the children and teachers 
in a school where you can rest in the shade of beautiful trees on a 
verdant meadow, where you can inhale the fragrance of sweet smelling 
flowers, in a community park made and maintained by the girls and 
boys of the school ? Then take a stroll through the school farm crops, 
stopping on your way at the barn and poultry yard where you can 
gaze upon pure bred hogs and poultry, belonging to the school ? After 
having enjoyed a bountiful repast with the children, teachers, neighbors 
and friends, spend a few hours in a magnificent school building, equip- 
ped with every thing necessary for a successful school, watching the 
sparkling eyes of the young Americans and listening to their melodious 
voices while singing some of the patriotic airs of to-doy's chivalry and 
hear read and spoken, among other things, some of the speeches of 
Washington, Lincoln and Wilson ? Or would you prefer visiting the 
little lone school house on the hill, without a sbada tree, a grass plot 
or a sweet smelling rose and spend a few hours ins'do its naked walls 
and crowded condition with scari'ed and broken furniture and broken 
windows? Do you think the children's eyes would sparkle as bright 
and their voices be as mellow as those in the Modern School ? Do you 
think the difference in the two schools is worth the difference in the 
price of building and maintaining them, when th? future of your child 
depends upon its surroundings and its education ? Do you know of any 
better way of investing your money than to put it into a Modern School 
and give to ycur child an even break in its preparation for life's 
journey ? 



MODERN RURAL SCHOOLS 



UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
STATES RELATION SERVICE 



Washington, D. C. 

December, 5, 1918. 
Mr. Fred Ingram, 

County Agent, 
Sallisaw, Oklahom.a. 
Dear Mr. Ingram :- 

I have your letter of November 27 with an outlined plan of school 
sites as community centers for your county. Frankly, I think any plan 
which will rive the schools a sufficient area and support and which 
will make them truly centers for more than mere school activities is 
an admirable plan. 

1 have been saying for the last eight or nine years that the ideal 
county organization consists in community organizations of farmers 
and their families and then elected delegates from the community 
organisation to a county central organization. We have many counties 
now in West Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Texas and other states 
where this ideal is being closely appi-oximated but, however, not any 
of them have the added advantage of a school so organized as to become 
a real center of interest in the community. Such an organization and 
such a school would add greatly to the happiness and the profit of the 
people. The future of agriculture lies in good broad-minded organiza- 
tions for real mutual help. 

With kindest regards, I remain. 

Very truly yours, 

BRADFORD KNAPP, Chief. 



January 23rd, 1919. 
Mr. Fred Mcrshon, 
County Supt. of Schools, 
Sallisaw, Oklahoma. 
Dear Sir;- 

I just received your booklet on "Mershon's Modern Rural School.'' 
You are to be commended on the interest you are taking in the rural 
schools. They are the most neglected schools in our country. I ap- 
preciate your sending me the pamphlet. 

Very truly yours. 
Professor of Agronomy& Agronomist, 
A. & M. College, Stilwater, Okla. 



Washington, D. C. January 24th, 1919. 
Mr. Fred Mershcn, 
County Sup't. of Schools, 
Call] saw, Oklahoma. 
My Dear Mr. Mershcn :- 

I am in receipt of your booklet, "Mershon's Modern Rural School,'" 
and am highly impressed with the plans and ideas advanced therein 
It is certainly a long step in the right direction and I feel sure it will 
prove a great success. 



MODERN RURAL SCHOOLS 



Oklahoma has the climate and soil necessary for high development 
along agricultural lines. I know it is only a question of time until we 
see our state rank well among the leading agj'icultu^-al states of the 
Union. 

I am deeply interested in farming and farmers and nothing pleases 
me more than to see a movement of this kind started. 

With best wishes and kindest personal regards, I am, 

Sincerely yours, 

W. W. HASTINGS, 
Member of Congress. 



Wagoner, Okla., February 1st, 1919. 
Mr. Fred Mershon, 

Sallisaw, Oklahoma. • 

Dear Sir:- 

I have just finished reading your plan of "Modern Rural School" 
and must say that I think it an excellent one. 

The school Site, Building and Equipment are very concrete and 
practical, as well, the "Paragraphs of Interest ' are very suggestive. 
I heartily agree with you in every detail and feel sure that in a short 
time there will be a great stride forward in the communities where 
these schools are located. 

The Extension Division will be glad to co-operate with you in 
the fullest, I am sure, and your County Agent is very fortunate in 
having such progressive Educational Officials with whom to work. 

Thanking you for the copy of "Modern Rural School" and assuring 
you that I shall be glad ot co-operate in your great work any time that 
I can, I am. 

Yours for better schools and better boys and girls, 

C. M. HUBBARD, 
County Agent, Wagoner County. 



Nowata, Okla., February 1st, 1919. 
Hon. Fred Mershon, 
Sallisaw, Oklahoma., 
Dear Sir:- 

I received your booklet, "Mershon's Modern Rural School". I con- 
gratulate you on this achievement! I am mighty glad you finally got 
the vision and are putting in into practical use. 

Your friend, 

H. M. WOLVERTON, 
Covmty Agent; Nowata County. 



Newkirk, Okla., February 4th, 1919. 
Sup't. Fred Mershon, 
Sallisaw, Okla. 
Dear Mr. Mershon:- * • 

I wish you could spare me one dozen of Mershon's Modern Rural 
school booklets. I have one sent me by State Superintendent Mr. Duke. 



MODERN RURAL SCHOOLS 



Several persons have seen this book and are asking for copies. If 
these books ai'e not free please give me pi-ice of same. 

Yours very truly, 

A. D. KERSEY, 
County Superintendent of Schools, Kay, County. 



Bathgate, North Dakota, Feb. 6th, 1919. 
Sup"t. Fred Mershon, 
Sallisaw, Okla. 
Dear Mr. Mershon :- 

I have at hand your plan on Modern Rural Schools and with 
respect to this plan of school, I must say, it is the best with which 
I have ever come in contact. 

Yours for a better educational system, 

PAUL A. MILLER, A. B. 



Oklahoma City, Okla., Feb. 12th, 1919. 
Mr. Fred Mershon, 
Sallisaw, Okla. 
Dear Mr. Mershon :- 

I have your favor of recent date, enclosing copy of prospectus 

of your Modern Rural School, for which please accept thanks. I shall 

take pleasure in looking through the little booklet, and believe that you 

have contributed something of great value to our public school system. 

Again thanking you for the favor, I am, 

Yours very truly, 

J. ELMER THOMAS, 
Member, Oklahoma State Senate. 



TENNESSEE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL 
J. H. Bayer, Supt. 

Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 19th, 1919. 
Hon. Luther Kyle, 
County Attorney, 
Sallisaw, Okla. 
My Dear Mr. Kyle:- 

I was indeed pleased to receive a copy of "Mershon's Moderin 

Rural Schools" and I M-as delighted with the scheme. I note with 

pleasure the expressions of appreciation for the assistance you ren- 

dei-ed, which I am sure was of the old time standard— the best there is. 

With every assurance of interest, I am as always, 

Most truly yours, 

J. H. BAYER, Superintendent. 



Ninnekah, Okla., Feb. 20th, 1919 
Hon. Fred Mershon, 
Sallisaw, Okla. 
Dear Mr. Mershon :- 

I am in possession of your valuable little booklet forwarded to me 



MODERN RURAL SCHOOLS 



by my brother from Warner, Okla. 

I am indeed very much interested in your plan. Time will prove 
that you are pioneering the greatest movement of the age. This is no 
rash statement but one made advisedly after many years study on 
rural problems. 

When a member of the State Senate I helprd secure the first State 
Aid for Union Graded and Rural Consolidated Schools. As President 
of district agricultural schools and as superintendent of sevei'al con- 
solidated schools; I have had a considerable observation on this line. 
Yours for rural advancement, 

GEO. A. COFFEY. 



STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 

President's Office 

Oklahoma City, February 28th, 1919. 
Mr. Fred Mershon, 
County Superintendent, 
Sequoyah County, Oklahoma. 

1 have read with very much interest, your little booklet on the 
"Modern Rural School." I certainly think you have made a great step 
in the right direction and it will always give me pleasure to co-operate 
and assist you in any way that I can to advance this practical and 
"balanced ration" method of education. 

While I have no desire to take away from the farm boy or girl, 
the desires for a higher education, especially that that deals with 
chaste and correct English, the ability to read, speak and write 
correctly; balance this with the great practical plan of being able to 
produce, construct and develop the things about them. 

I would be very glad to have you call on me some time when you 
are in the city that I may get better acquainted with your plan. 

Thanking you for the great interest you have taken in this line 
of education, I am. 

Very truly yours, 

J. A. WHITEHURST, President. 



Stilwell, Okla., March 3rd, 1919. 
Mr. Fred Mershon, 
Sallisaw, Okla. 
Dear Sir:- 

Our County Superintendent called my attention to your pr^positi-^n 
on schools, and asked my opinion on the system. I am glad to say, 
that I see much good that could come out of them, and certainly hope 
that you succeed with your plans, 

Sincerely yours, 

W. M. MOBERLY, 
Emergency Demonstration Agent. 



MODERN RURAL SCHOOLS 



SUCCESSFUL FARMING 

Des Moines, Iowa, March 3rd, 1919. 
Fred Mershon, 

County Superintendent of Schools, 
Sallisaw, Okla. \ 

Dear Sir:- 

I have read your school plan with a great deal of interest. You have 
the right idea. I can see that you are following the suggestions of the 
Federal Bureau of Education. I see nothing in it to criticise. It seems 
to me you might make the appeal stronger if some of the startling 
facts of rural education are brought home to the people. 

Yours very truly, 

SUCCESSFUL FARMING, 

Alson Secor, Editor 



Whereas, we the teachers and school officers of Sequoyah County, 
Oklahoma, in convention assembled, realize that the greatest war in 
the history of the world has been brought to a successful close, by the 
nations that stand for Democracy and the freedom of mankind. During 
this war, we learned from actual experience many things that will go 
toward bettering the conditions of the human family in the reconstruc- 
tion of the affairs of the nation. We believe the time is ripe for a 
better and more practical school system. A system that will give 
to the boys and girls of this country a chance to fulfill some important 
mission in life. Our noble County Superintendent of Schools, Hon. 
Fred Mershon, who has worked so faithfully for the betterment of 
school conditions of this county and who has worked out a plan by 
which the rural boys and girls can secure a practical education, is 
entitled not only to the recognition of the people of Sequoyah County 
and the State of Oklahoma but is entitled to this recognition by the 
people of every state in the Union. His plan is simple and practical. 
Since so small a number of the elementary and high school pupils enter 
the colleges and universities, it becomes necessary that they receive 
such education in the elementary schools that will fit them for the most 
efficient public life. The community pays for the educational system 
and should, in return, demand something that will be of value in a 
vocational or an industrial way as well as in an intellectual or classi- 
cal way. The public is just beginning to realize that they have been 
receiving nothing of this nature for their outlay. When they fully 
comprehend the value of a practical education, such as outlined in 
"Mershons Modern Rural School," schools of this type will be the 
general instead of the exceptional. To show our appreciation of Sup't. 
Mershon's efforts as a school man in this County and of his Modern 
Rural School, we hereby place our endorsement upon this great and 
practical plan of school, known as "Mershon's Modern Rural School," 
and recommend it to every rural community not only in the State of 
Oklahoma but every state in the Union. 

To Sup't Fred Mershon, for all the good work he has done for the 
schools of the county in the pa.st, we wish to express our hearty appre- 



MODERN RURAL SCHOOLS 



ciation and endorsement, and wish him continued success in all his 

future undertakings. 

We the members of the Sequoyah County Teachers' and School 

Officers' Association, ask that a copy of these resolutions be filed with 

the County Superintendent and a copy be sent to the various papers 

of the county for publication. 
Signed: 

I. L. GEORGE, 
A. P. BENNETT, 
E. E. SUMAN. 

Sallisaw, Okla., March 29th, 1919. 



CONCLUSION 



In corclision, I desire to thank Hon. Luther Kyle, our County 
Attorney, and Hon. Fred Ingram, our County Agent, for some splendid 
suggestions given in working out this plan of school. I am also very 
greatful to Prof. James A. Wilson, Director of Extension Work of the 
A. & M. College of this state for some good suggestions from which 
we benefited materially. I further desire to express my appreciation of 
the splendid letter of commendation of my plan by Doctor Bradford 
Knapp, Washington, D. C, Chief Director of Extension Work in the 
South, which you will find reproduced in this little booklet. This 
letter was written to Mr. Ingram in response to a copy of this plan of 
school sent him by Mr. Ingram for inspection. In looking through 
this little booklet you will find an editorial of the South West Ameri- 
can, Vvl-'ch I pm sure v. ill be interesting to you. It very beautifully 
portrays the same general line of thought that I have been trying to 
give you, applied to our rural schools. I trust that ere another year 
passes by, many more will place their stamp of appi'oval on this plan 
of school and thus give it a chance to prove its worth to the rural boy 
and girl. If it succeeds, it v ill be through the co-operation of the 
patrons of the school, properly backed up by the County Superintendent 
and the School Boards. If it fails, it will be through the lack of co- 
operation on the part of the patrons and others having to do with the 
management of the schools. Tchools are largely what e :nake them. 

I hope you will examine this plan of school carefully, and frankly 
tell me what you think of it. The plan is brand new and no diubt will 
be improved upon from time to time until it i3 made more perfect. I 
respectfully invite criticism and trust you will not hesitate for one 
minute to give your opinion of its adaptibility and practicability to 
rural and village schools. 

Most respectfully yours, 

FRED MERSHON, 
County Sup't of Schools 
Sallisaw, Okla. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 




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